When it comes to the contracts he signs, Samuel L. Jackson is very clear about one thing. The well-known actor is opposed to his voice, likeness, and likeness being used “in perpetuity.”
This indicates that Jackson has no interest in enabling the use of his voice, image, etc. after a production is finished.
The Washington, D.C. native advises all actors to pay attention to this, especially beginners, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In an interview with Rolling Stone, he discusses the specifics.
His Tips for Aspiring Actors
Future performers should follow Jackson’s example, who told Rolling Stone, “I cross that sh-t out when I get a contract and it says ‘in perpetuity’ and ‘known and unknown’.” It’s my way of expressing, “No, I don’t like this.”
The actor reveals that Hollywood has been using artificial intelligence (AI) for some time, even before his “Star Wars” prequel days, when asked about his appearance and likeness being replicated for future usage.
AI’s Use in Hollywood
People have only recently begun to worry about that. Jackson remarked. “I enquired about that in the past. I was curious as to why I was being scanned for George Lucas the first time (for “The Phantom Menace”). I felt George was doing it because he had all those elderly men in “Episode I,” and if something happened to them, he still wanted to include them in the movie. George and I are good friends, so we kind of laughed about it.
This type of technology wasn’t the end for Jackson. He talked about his experiences using de-aging technologies while playing Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Every time you switch outfits in a Marvel movie, they scan you ever since I’ve been a part of the Marvel Universe, he recounted. It’s been like, “Well, I guess they can do this anytime they want to if they really want to,” ever since I did “Captain Marvel” and they completed the Lola project where they de-aged me and everything else.
He intensifies his reading of the fine print in his contract since he realized that this “could be something to worry about.”
However, some actors have no problem delegating their skills to AI.
James Earl Jones officially ended his tenure as Darth Vader’s voice actor in September 2022, as AfroTech previously reported, and approved all remaining voice recordings. AI-powered software will reproduce the actor’s youthful voice from earlier “Star Wars” movies.
It appears that the world is still catching up to the rapidly advancing state of technology.